The Ilkhanate: Courts, Armies and Eurasian Connections

From Hülegü’s conquest of West Asia in the 1250s to the fragmentation of Ilkhanid rule after 1335, the Ilkhanate governed territories centered on Iran and Iraq and extending through Azerbaijan, the Caucasus and parts of Anatolia. Its court and army connected these regions to other Mongol states and to powers as distant as western Europe. These connections depended on both mobile rulers and urban administrative centers, as well as on military service, provincial resources, relay communications and diplomacy.

On this page5 sections

Royal courts on the move and in the cities

Hülegü, a grandson of Genghis Khan, led the Mongol campaign that established the Ilkhanate. The territory was initially part of the wider Mongol Empire; after the succession crisis following Great Khan Möngke’s death in 1259, the Ilkhans ruled it with increasing autonomy. The dynasty nevertheless retained links to the Great Khan and, later, the Yuan rulers in China.

The royal court moved between seasonal pastures and urban centres. Wintering in warmer lowlands and summering in the Azerbaijan highlands helped sustain people and herds. Maragheh, Tabriz and Soltaniyeh supplied administrative and monumental settings within this mobile political geography. Court movement required servants, stores, animals and officials to travel with the ruler.

Administration joined Mongol military authority with Persian bureaucratic expertise. Mongolian was used by the ruling dynasty, at court and in high-level documents; Persian served as a major language of administration and public life. Official documents could also use Turkic and Arabic. The result was a court able to draw on different political and administrative traditions while governing a large, linguistically diverse realm.

Maragheh also illustrates the court’s connections beyond military affairs. Hülegü brought Chinese scholars and astronomers to the region, and an observatory was established there. The Persian astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi learned about Chinese calculating tables in this setting. Such exchanges took place alongside the movement of rulers, officials and armies across the Ilkhanid domain.

Military service and the resources of the realm

Hülegü’s campaign was backed by a substantial force from the wider Mongol army. He was assigned a fifth of that army for his expedition, and Mongol commanders continued to rely on forces drawn from more than one community. In the course of Mongol expansion, communities that submitted could be brought under Mongol rule, with their warriors incorporated into the army. Local rulers who became vassals could also contribute troops to campaigns.

Regional Christian rulers supplied military support within relationships of Mongol overlordship. Hethum of Cilician Armenia sent his brother Smbat to the Mongol court in 1247 and made the journey himself in 1254. Armenian and Georgian contingents took part in later Ilkhanid campaigns. Their obligations differed from the distant, largely unrealised proposals for cooperation with western European powers.

Campaign armies combined Mongol forces with regional contingents, and keeping them supplied required food, pasture and transport. At Homs in 1281, an Ilkhanid-led force that included Armenian and Georgian allies was defeated by the Mamluks. The defeat prevented lasting control of Syria despite the army’s ability to draw on several political partners.

Land revenues and provincial resources supported military activity. Ghazan’s 1303–1304 edict proposed revenue assignments for commanders and soldiers, while peasants and enslaved labourers would cultivate the land. The proposal came near the end of his life, making its full implementation uncertain. Army supply remained tied to contested demands on regional production.

Relay stations and the movement of messages

The yam was a relay system supporting official messengers with fresh mounts and provisions along a route. Changing horses reduced the delay caused by exhausted animals. Staffing and supplying stations placed demands on the surrounding population, so Ghazan sought to restrict unauthorised use and private errands. The system connected written instructions with the practical resources needed to carry them.

Relay communications helped rulers and commanders send instructions and intelligence across a realm whose court and armies moved between regions. The same wider network connected Mongol-ruled territories and could support long-distance travel beyond official missions. Its operation depended on provisions and replacement animals being available at stations, making communication part of the practical infrastructure of rule rather than simply a matter of carrying letters.

Documents also show how Ilkhanid administration remained connected to other Mongol courts. Some seals used in the Ilkhanate came from the Yuan court, while others were made locally using Yuan-derived forms. Ilkhanid rulers used these seals on official documents, and their chancery shared documentary conventions with administrations elsewhere in the Mongol Empire. The exchange of seals and administrative forms carried political meaning as well as practical authority.

Relations with the Yuan, Golden Horde and Chagatai rulers

The Ilkhans governed autonomously while continuing to seek the Great Khan’s recognition. Bolad, an envoy from the Yuan court who remained in Iran, supplied knowledge of Mongol institutions and history. Exchanges of documents, seals and personnel gave imperial relationships a practical form alongside the independent decisions of the western court.

Relations with other Mongol states were often hostile. Fighting with the Golden Horde began during Hülegü’s reign and continued under his successors. In 1262, Golden Horde ruler Berke went to war with Hülegü; the conflict drew on rivalries within the Mongol ruling family and was followed by an alliance between Berke and the Mamluks. Ilkhanid rulers also faced threats from the Chagatai Khanate, including an invasion in 1270 and a revolt in Khorasan in 1318. These conflicts competed for military attention and shaped the Ilkhanate’s ability to campaign farther west.

The Ilkhanate’s conversion to Islam under Ghazan in 1295 did not end its hostility toward the Mamluk state. The two powers continued to fight over Syria, and Ilkhanid attempts to establish lasting control there failed. In 1322, Ghazan’s successor Abu Sa’id concluded a peace treaty with the Mamluks. The settlement followed decades of conflict, even as the Ilkhanid court continued its diplomatic dealings with other powers.

Western diplomacy and the limits of military cooperation

Ilkhanid rulers exchanged envoys and letters with western European powers, especially when both sides considered the Mamluks a common opponent. The approaches began under Hülegü and continued under Abaqa, Arghun, Ghazan and Öljaitü. The proposed cooperation did not become a formal alliance. Mongol requests often included recognition of Mongol authority, while European rulers made promises but did not consistently commit forces and resources.

Abaqa’s dealings with Edward, the future Edward I of England, in 1271 came close to military coordination. Abaqa sent his general Samagar with a force of 10,000 Mongols to act against the Mamluks, while Edward conducted raids from the Crusader territories. The operations did not recover territory, and the separate forces could not turn their efforts into a lasting joint campaign. Long distances and the timing of military movements made cooperation difficult.

Diplomatic missions could travel between courts even when military plans failed. During Arghun’s reign, the cleric Rabban Bar Sauma travelled on an embassy to western rulers, carrying Ilkhanid proposals for cooperation. Later Ilkhanid attempts to coordinate with the Crusader states also achieved little. In 1299, Ghazan’s forces took Aleppo and defeated the Mamluks at Wadi al-Khaznadar, but the Mongols withdrew from Syria the following year. A further invasion in 1303 ended in defeat. These campaigns show that diplomatic contact and shared enemies did not remove the military and political obstacles facing the parties.

The court’s connections thus operated at several levels: through troops supplied by regional allies, official messages carried across relay routes, administrative practices shared with the Yuan, and negotiations with neighboring khanates and western rulers. These systems changed as rulers and political relationships changed. After Abu Sa’id died in 1335, the Ilkhanate fragmented among competing powers, bringing the period of a single Ilkhanid court to an end.

For the wider setting, see The Ilkhanate: Mongol Rule, Government and Society in Iran.